THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 3, 1994
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT FUNDRAISER FOR KATHLEEN BROWN
Sheraton Carlton Hotel
Washington, DC
6:45 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Why don't we just
vote right now. (Laughter.) You do that for 30 more days and you're
in like Flynn
That was terrific. Thank you, Kathleen. And thank you,
Governor Bayh for your leadership.
You know, I really resent Evan Bayh -- he's young and
handsome -- (laughter) -- manages to avoid controversy and stay
popular. (Laughter.) And he's done a lot better as head of the
Democratic governors than I did when I was there. (Laughter.)
GOVERNOR BAYH: Well, that's because I have a great
President helping out. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Not only that, but he's a wonderful
tribute to our party, and he has a terrific future.
I came here tonight to speak for Kathleen Brown. I want
to thank the members of our administration who are here. The members
of the Cabinet, their presence here should tell you how important we
think this race is.
I was listening to Kathleen speak a moment ago. I want
to just tell you a few things from the heart about this. First of
all, I declared for President three years ago today. (Applause.) At
the time I was Governor; I had just been reelected to a fifth term,
two four-year terms, three two-year terms. I was happy as a clam at
home. I got into the race basically because I didn't want to see our
victory in the Cold War be squandered in the aftermath, because I
didn't want to see America move to the 21st century not able to
compete and win, and because I didn't like the fact that our country
was coming apart when it ought to be coming together.
And when I began that race, most people thought I needed
my head examined because the incumbent President was over 70 percent
approval in the polls. My mother thought I could win, that's about
it. (Laughter and applause.) That's about it.
I say it to make two points. One, in the moment the
polls are not as important as the public official, the candidate and
the conviction. And secondly, the choice that Kathleen Brown just
posed to you is a choice we're going to have to be making over and
over and over and over again until we get out of what we got
ourselves into over a very long period of time.
And all along the way, at various times, the choice will
be more difficult for people. But when I look at what her opponent's
tried to do to her out in California -- how he's tried to sort of
define here -- it's classic Republican politics. And they're very
good at it. Let's not kid ourselves. They are very good at
demonizing their opponents, at turning their opponents into aliens,
and making people at the local Kiwanis Club think that they wouldn't
share a piece of apple pie with their opponents. That's what they're
good at. That's how they stay in.
They always think that given the contentious and
divisive nature of the way people communicate and the way they are
communicated to today, they can exalt blame over responsibility; they
can exalt division over unity; they can exalt fear over hope. That's
what they believe. Once in a while we prove them wrong -- when we
can communicate with discipline and conviction and persistence, and
when we are not ground down.
I'd have come over here tonight just to hear her give
that speech, because now she's got me in a better humor, too.
(Laughter and applause.) I'm telling you. (Applause.)
So you heard it, and it's the same thing everywhere. I
ran for President because we were in the midst of 30 years of social
problems, 20 years of economic problems, and 12 years of the kind of
stuff she's going through now -- where the leadership of this country
would always tell the American people what they thought they wanted
to hear. They would talk tough and get the image that they are tough
-- presidential, national message -- and they would act weak.
They would talk like our parent and then act like our
child -- telling us exactly what we wanted to hear as if it were
tough medicine, and then writing us a check and never worrying about
who was going to pay the bill. Now, that is what has happened for 12
years. And always escaping responsibility by placing blame. Now,
that is exactly what they have done. And that's what you see in
California.
I just want to say something personally to the people of
California. I'm going to have an opportunity to say it out there.
I've been to California about a dozen times since I've been
President. Would have been once more if it hadn't been for the
events in Haiti that kept me away from going out there for Kathleen a
few days ago. I love the place. (Applause.) It's a fascinating
place. (Applause.) And everything that America has everywhere is
also there.
They have had two huge problems. One is, since they're
the biggest state in the country economically, when we had a
recession they got hit harder with it. The second is that with about
12 percent of our population, they had 21 percent of our defense
investments. So that when we cut defense in this country at the end
of the Cold War, starting back in '87, that's when defense peaked, it
was absolutely predictable that it would have double the impact in
California that it would have anywhere else because of the
concentration; and that the impact might be highly weighted in high-
wage jobs. Therefore, turning it around takes a little more time
because the hit was bigger there.
And so I went all over California in that election
trying to figure out what was going on in Southern California; what
was going on in Northern California; what was going on for the
farmers; what was going on in the inland empire; what was going on in
San Diego; how were the border problems, the immigration problems
going to be aggravated and exacerbated and people's sense of
insecurity going to be reinforced by all these terrible economic
problems.
If you had 150 different racial and ethnic groups in Los
Angeles County, that meant that it could be the beacon of the whole
future for the United States, but how are they going to get through
all the tensions that would be caused by the economic contraction of
the moment until we could turn it around.
I have really given a lot of thought to this. And when
we put together an economic strategy, it was pretty simple. It was:
reduce the deficit; increase investment in education, training and
new technologies; expand trade and investment; and try to empower
individuals and communities to succeed, which means that the places
that are in the worse shape need some extra help.
How did that play itself out in California? Well, we
removed restrictions on $35 billion worth of high-tech exports where
California has a decided interest greater than any other state in the
country. We spent hundreds of millions of dollars, as Kathleen said,
on defense conversions -- helping to turn bases over to local
communities so they could get businesses in their there to put people
to work, and actually investing with companies in new technologies of
the future. I visited the Rockwell plant out there, and you were
there, too, the day we went there to talk about that.
When the earthquake came, when the fires came, we were
there with emergency aid in a hurry. We rebuilt the world's busiest
highway quicker than anybody thought we could by literally
reinventing, to use the Vice President's term, the way we spend the
money out there. (Applause.)
In spite of all this talk about immigration, it was our
administration that for the first time recommended and got through
Congress federal assistance to pay for the criminal justice costs of
illegal immigrants. We increased by 30 percent -- by 30 percent --
the amount of aid in a tough time. We were reducing spending
overall. We increased by 30 percent the amount of money going to
California to deal with their costs of immigration -- 30 percent over
what happened when the previous president was here and the present
Governor was a member of the United States Senate. That's what we
did. That's our record on that issue.
We have done a number of other things. We are backing
Senator Feinstein's desert bill. Last weekend we turned the Presidio
over to you so you folks can do something great with it. (Applause.)
We are doubling the border guards for enforcement on the border. We
have worked hard for California. We're selling California rice to
Japan for the first time in history. (Applause.)
I met a walnut farmer last month from California -- said
it just kills my farmer friends because they're all Republicans --but
they have to admit that you have done more for us than any President
in the last 30 years. (Applause.) And we are working for
California. (Applause.)
Now, I say that to make this point -- and why it's so
important that you're here -- all that can still be washed away by
the deliberate, concerted effort of our opponents to place blame over
responsibility, division over unity, fear over hope; can wipe away
all the details and all the facts.
And what you have to do to help Kathleen Brown win is to
contribute now and then talk and work between now and the election --
to prove that what really counts is what will build that state.
I'm really proud of the fact that in 20 months we have
made a good start on bringing this country back. But don't kid
yourself, it's just a good start. I'm proud of the fact that we have
three years of deficit reduction in a row for the first time since
Truman. We're going to the smallest federal government John Kennedy
was President. The Republicans bad-mouth the government, but we
shrunk it with no help from them. (Applause.) That there are 4.3
million new jobs in this economy, and that for the first time in nine
years the United States was rated a couple of weeks ago by the Panel
of International Economists as the most productive country in the
world, and I am proud of that. But it is just a beginning.
You look at what is happening in California, and you
will see the combined impact of 30 years of social problems, 20 years
of economic problems, 12 years of neglect and a disproportionate
impact of the defense cutback. The people out there cannot be blamed
if they are still frustrated and full of anxiety. That is not their
fault. It is our job to tell the people of California that Kathleen
Brown and Diane Feinstein are builders, people who are trying to make
things better; and that they should not be diverted from the urgent
task of building the country and building the state.
If I might just say a word about crime, Kathleen's
already said that. A picture of Kathleen Brown and Jerry Brown and
Rose Bird is not worth near as much as the assault weapons ban,
100,000 police, 100,000 jail cells for criminals, thousands and
thousands of prevention programs, and a tougher approach to crime.
(Applause.)
And I'll tell you something else, I know something about
this. I started out as Attorney General of my state. I have a
different position than she does on capital punishment, but our crime
bill had 60 different specific statutes on that. She supported our
crime bill and he didn't. Who are we kidding with these ads about
who's weak on crime or not. (Applause.) She had the record when we
needed it. (Applause.)
So I say to you, you have to make up your mind. You can
cheer tonight, but tomorrow, all those ads will still be out there on
television, and everybody will be writing about this as if it's a
horse race instead of a fight for the spirit and the soul of that
state and what happens to the future of little children. And you
have to decide whether you feel some sort of personal responsibility
to affect the outcome.
I'm telling you, it is a wonderful place. It has
enormous potential. This country will never fully recover until
California recovers. And we have work to do. And the people out
there cannot be blamed for voting on what they know. That's the way
all the rest of us are, too. We can only act on what we know. We
can only see the world through the prism of our own experience. And
while all of us have been up here working for them, the other guys
have been out there talking about us.
So now when the Congress goes home, the election should
be our friend because we can go tell the truth. What you have to do
is make a personal commitment to do that. The economic plan that
Kathleen Brown has outlined will help to do what only the state can
do to rebuild California. The federal government and a partnership
that we are building between the private sector and the federal
government cannot do it alone. There must be state initiatives.
There will always be in California things that can only be done by
people who know the problems the best, who understand the
opportunities most clearly.
The economic strategy that I have outlined cannot fully
succeed anywhere without aggressive leadership at the state level to
rebuild the economy. And, believe me, we can continue to make
progress on education and training; we can continue to build this
economy; we can drive down the crime rate. We can make progress on
immigration. But to do it, it's going to require a tough,
disciplined, concerted, long-term partnership between the White House
and Washington and the people who live and work in California,
starting in the State House in Sacramento. That's what this election
is about.
So the country has a big interest in who wins here. Not
the political system, not the political pundits, but the welfare of
the average man and woman and child all across America. You just
heard her case for why she should win. Let us exalt hope over fear.
Let us exalt unity over division. Let us prove that responsibility
still beats blame in common sense America by making sure that no
voter goes to the polls in California unaware of the real facts.
Thank you, and God bless you all. (Applause.)
END7:03 P.M. EDT